Byon A. Basic Korean: A Grammar and Workbook
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2 Unit 1: Reading Hangul
ල ya (as in yard)
ශ yo (as in yonder)
yo (as in yoga)
yu (as in you)
ya (as in yankie)
ෂG ye (as in yes)
Another four double-vowel symbols are made up of combining some
of the basic vowel symbols together (e.g., combining ස “o” and ර “a”
produces හ “wa”):
හG wa (as in wine)
wo (as in wonder)
ළ wae (as in wait)
් whe (as in when)
Notice that the above four double-vowel symbols have the w sound.
You may wonder whether other vowel symbols can be combined.
However, there are vowel symbols that cannot be combined together.
For instance, ස does not combine with or ව, whereas does not
combine with ර or . The reason is attributed to the Korean vowel
harmony principle.
In Korean, two vowel symbols ර and ස are called “bright vowels” since
they sound sonorous to Korean native speakers. Since the vowel symbols
such asGළ, හ, , and were derived from ර and ස (e.g., either add-
ing a stroke or combining them together), these vowel symbols are also
considered “bright vowels.” On the other hand, and are considered
“dark vowels” along with , ්, and ෂ. Meanwhile ා and are called
“neutral vowels.” The vowel harmony principle prohibits the combination
of bright and dark vowel symbols.
Consonants
Hangul has 19 consonant symbols, as shown below:
ථ p (as in park, but relaxed)
ඹ p (as in pill, aspirated; or with puffs of air)
ද p (as in speak, tense)
ඣ t (as in tall, but relaxed)
ම t (as in talk, aspirated)
ඤ t (as in steam, tense)
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Unit 1: Reading Hangul 3
ඝ k (as in kiss, but relaxed)
භ k (as in king, aspirated)
ඞ k (as in skill, tense)
ප ch (as in chill, but relaxed)
බ ch (as in change, aspirated)
ඵ tch (as in midget, tense)
ත m (as in mother)
ඳ ng (as in king)
ච n (as in nose)
ඥ l (l as in lung or r as in Spanish r)
ය h (as in hope)
න s (as in soul)
s (as in sea)
How to combine consonant with vowel symbols
The basic unit of a Korean letter is a syllable. In other words, a complete
Korean written letter must have at least one consonant and a vowel symbol.
The combinations of the vowel and consonant symbols are fivefold.
First, a syllable consists of only one vowel sound (e.g., like English “a”).
Although the letter pronunciation is consisted of only vowel pronunciation
like “a” (without any spoken consonant), you still need to start the syllable
with a consonant symbol to make the letter complete. For this purpose, you
use a Korean consonant ඳ. The use of the ඳ symbol is special in that it
is used as zero-value consonant when it appears before a vowel. It func-
tions as a place holder in a word-initial position, so that the letter “a”
should be written in Korean as 㞚 (not ර). Let us take another example.
Writing a letter for the sound “yo” should look like 㣪 not . Again,
although the letter begins with the vowel pronunciation “yo” (without any
spoken consonant), you still have to start with a zero-value consonant ඳ
to make it a complete letter, as in 㣪.
Second, it can have a vowel but followed by a consonant (e.g., like
English “on” or 㡾 in Korean). Third it can have a consonant, followed by
a vowel (e.g., like English “go” or ἶ in Korean). Fourth, a syllable letter
can have a consonant, followed by a vowel, and then a consonant (e.g.,
like English “dam” or ╊ in Korean) or two consonants (e.g., like English
“host” or 䦯 in Korean).
The position of the vowel symbols is either to the right of or below the
initial consonant symbol, as in ⹎ and ⏎. If the syllable has a consonant
after a vowel symbol, it is always below the vowel, as in ⹒ and ⏏.
There are a few things to remember. First, a Korean syllable does not
start with two consonants (e.g., unlike the English word “clip”). In addition,
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4 Unit 1: Reading Hangul
the syllable with three symbols (consonant-vowel-consonant(s)) seems to
be more crowded and compacted than the one of two symbols (consonant-
vowel) formation. However, each syllable should look about the same size,
no matter how many symbols it may contains. For instance, notice that the
sizes of the following two letters are about the same: ⋮ and 䦯. Another
thing to remember is that Hangul follows the spelling convention, and
consequently, Korean spellings do not change just because it reads a little
differently from its symbol combinations. In other words, one should not
write just as each word sounds (this is the same for English, where you
cannot write just as you hear or speak).
Exercises
Exercise 1.1
Among the following vowel symbols, circle the one that is pronounced
differently from the others.
◆, ┺, ╖
Exercise 1.2
Among the following vowel symbols, circle the one that is pronounced
differently from the others.
Ὦ, ᾊ, ῞
Exercise 1.3
Among the following vowel symbols, circle the one that is not one of the
“bright vowels.”
ර, ළ, , ස, ,
Exercise 1.4
Among the following vowel symbols, circle the one that is not one of the
“dark vowels.”
, , ්, හ, , ෂ
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Unit 1: Reading Hangul 5
Exercise 1.5
The following Korean words are the English borrowed words used in
Korean. Match each Korean word with one of the following English words
(camera, jazz, taxi, romance, hot dog, Starbucks, quiz, coat, bus, sandwich,
hamburger, and coffee):
1 ⻚㓺
2 䄺䞒
3 䆪䔎
4 㨂㯞
5 䊊㯞
6 ⪲ⰾ㓺
7 䌳㔲
8 㓺䌖⻛㓺
9 䟁☚⁎
10 ㌢✲㥚䂮
11 䟚⻚Ệ
12 䃊Ⲫ⧒
Exercise 1.6
The following are names of countries in Hangul. Make a guess and write
the English name for each country.
1 ぢ⧒㰞
2 㓺䗮㧎
3 ⏎⯊㤾㧊
4 䞖⧖✲
5 䞚Ⰲ䞖
6 㧊䌞Ⰲ㞚
7 䝚⧧㓺
8 㧟⁖⧲✲
9 䃦⋮┺
10 ⲫ㔲䆪
Exercise 1.7
The following are names of cities in Hangul. Make a guess and write the
English name for each city.
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6 Unit 1: Reading Hangul
1 Ⓤ㣫
2 㔲✲┞
3 ㌢䝚⧖㔲㓺䆪
4 ⩆▮
5 䕢Ⰲ
6 ㍲㤎
7 Ⱎ✲Ⰲ✲
8 ⧒㓺Ṗ㓺
9 Ⓤ◎Ⰲ
10 Ⰲ㓺⽎
Exercise 1.8
Match each English name of the country with the corresponding Korean
name from the following list:
䙂⯊䒂Ṟ, ㌂㤆❪ 㞚⧒゚㞚, Ⓤ㰞⧲✲, 㞚⯊䠾䕆⋮, 㧊㰧䔎, 㧎❪㞚,
⩂㔲㞚, 㡺㓺䔎⩞㧒Ⰲ㞚, 㧊㓺⧒㠮, 䠳ṖⰂ.
1 Russia
2 Egypt
3 Portugal
4 Hungary
5 Saudi Arabia
6 New Zealand
7 Argentina
8 India
9 Australia
10 Israel
Exercise 1.9
Match each English name of the city with the corresponding Korean name
from the following list:
㡺㔂⪲, 䡂㕇䋺, ⳾㓺䋂, ⪲Ⱎ, 䏶䈚, ㌗䞮㧊, 䆫, 䃊㧊⪲, ⲫ㔲䆪㔲
䕆, Ⰲ㡺◆G㧦⍺㧊⪲.
1 Shanghai
2 Cairo
3 Rio de Janeiro
4 Tokyo
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Unit 1: Reading Hangul 7
5 Moscow
6 Helsinki
7 Rome
8 Oslo
9 Bangkok
10 Mexico City
Exercise 1.10
The following are the names of some world famous people. Make a guess
and write their names in English.
1 㰖⹎G䃊䎆
2 㫆㰖G㓂
3 㞶ぢ⧮䟚GⰗ䄾
4 㫆㰖G㢖㕇䎊
5 㥞㓺䎊G㻮䂶
6 䏶Ⱎ㓺G㞶❪㓾
7 アG䋊Ⰶ䎊
8 Ⰲ㡺⋮⯊☚G┺ゞ䂮
9 㠮゚㓺G䝚⩞㔂Ⰲ
10 㫊G⩞⏒
Exercise 1.11
The following English words are used as loanwords in Korean. Match the
corresponding Korean words from the following list:
㓺䋺, 䈶䋺, ⋮㧊䝚, 䗲, ⳾┞䎆, 䎪⩞゚㩚, 䃊✲, 䕳㏷, ⋮⋮, 䞒㧦,
㡺⩢㰖, ㍊䛎.
1 monitor
2 shampoo
3 pizza
4 ski
5 television
6 pen
7 card
8 cookie
9 pop song
10 knife
11 banana
12 orange
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UNIT 2
Characteristics of the Korean language
Word order
English is a subject-verb-object (SVO) language (e.g., Andrew-studies-
Korean). However, Korean is a subject-object-verb (SOV) language (e.g.,
㞺✲⮮ṖG䞲ῃ㠊⯒GὋ䟊㣪 “Andrew-Korean-studies”). In Korean, verbs
and adjectives appear at the end of the sentence. All other elements such
as nouns (e.g., subject and/or object), adverbs, and numbers, appear before
verbs and/or adjectives. In addition, modifiers (e.g., adverbs, demonstrat-
ives, and relative clauses) appear before the modified words.
For instance, let us consider the following English sentence: “Peter
studies history at the library in the afternoon.” We know that “Peter” is
the subject since it comes before the verb “studies,” and “history” is the
object as it appears after the verb. Notice that extra elements such as “at
the library” and “in the afternoon” are placed after the object. In addition,
English prepositions always appear before nouns, as in “at the library.”
However, the word order of Korean would be 䞒䎆Ṗ ☚㍲ὖ㠦㍲G㡃㌂
⯒ Ὃ䟊㣪 “Peter library-at history studies.” Instead of English preposi-
tions, Korean has particles that always come after the noun. For instance,
we know 䞒䎆 is the subject, since it is marked by the subject particle ṖUG
☚㍲ὖ is the location since it is marked by the locative particle 㠦㍲. In
addition, 㡃㌂ is the object, since it is marked by the object particle ⯒.
Consider another example:
㞺✲⮮Ṗ 㰧㠦㍲ 㩦㕂㦚 ⲏ㠊㣪 “Andrew eats lunch at home”
The subject particle Ṗ marks 㞺✲⮮ as the subject of the sentence. The
location particle 㠦㍲ marks 㰧 as the location. In addition, the object
particle 㦚 marks 㩦㕂 as the object of the sentence.
Because of particles, Korean sentences do not always follow the SOV
pattern. Korean nouns (as subjects or objects) can be freely arranged in
a sentence. For instance, the following six sentences mean “Andrew eats
lunch at home.”
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10 Unit 2: Characteristics of the Korean language
㞺✲⮮Ṗ 㰧㠦㍲ 㩦㕂㦚 ⲏ㠊㣪 “Andrew home-at lunch eats”
㞺✲⮮Ṗ 㩦㕂㦚 㰧㠦㍲ ⲏ㠊㣪 “Andrew lunch home-at eats”
㰧㠦㍲ 㞺✲⮮Ṗ 㩦㕂㦚 ⲏ㠊㣪 “Home-at Andrew lunch eats”
㰧㠦㍲ 㩦㕂㦚 㞺✲⮮Ṗ ⲏ㠊㣪 “Home-at lunch Andrew eats”
㩦㕂㦚 㞺✲⮮Ṗ 㰧㠦㍲ ⲏ㠊㣪 “Lunch Andrew home-at eats”
㩦㕂㦚 㰧㠦㍲ 㞺✲⮮Ṗ ⲏ㠊㣪 “Lunch home-at Andrew eats”
The fact that Korean nouns can be freely arranged differs from English,
since the English word order typically determines grammatical relation-
ships. The word order affects the Korean language only when certain
particles are missing in given sentences (often during the colloquial
usages).
Meanwhile, for delimiting the meaning of the nouns, the tone is often
used in English. In Korean, however, the changing word orders (e.g., mov-
ing the important elements near the verb and less essential elements to
the front of the sentence) or using the special particles (e.g., topic particle
㦖/⓪) delimit the meanings of nouns.
Context-oriented language
In Korean the most important elements tend to cluster to the end of the
sentence. The further the word is from the end of the sentence, the less
important the element is and more likely it is to be dropped. In other
words, what appears at the very end of the sentence (e.g., verbs) is most
important. Consequently, Korean sentences that have no subject or object
but just a verb or an adjective, such as in ⲏ㠊㣪 “eat,” are grammatically
correct and natural in conversation. Here are more examples.
㞞⎫䞮㕃┞₢f “How are you?”
are peaceful
ⶦGὋ䞮㎎㣪f “What do you study?”
what study
Ṧ㌂䞿┞┺ “Thank you”
thanks do
Notice that none of the above expressions contains the first or second
person pronoun. What determines the omission is the context. The Korean
language is a context-oriented language in that any contextually understood
elements may be omitted unless they are indispensable.
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Unit 2: Characteristics of the Korean language 11
General-to-specific language
Korean is a “general-to-specific” or “big-to-small” language. In other
words, Koreans write or say general, or bigger, units before the specific,
or smaller, units. For instance, Koreans say or write the last name before
the given name (e.g., ₖ㩫⹒ “Kim Jungmin”).
When writing an address, they write the name of the country, followed
by the province, city, street, house number, and the name of the receiver.
╖䞲⹒ῃSGἓ₆☚SG㍲㤎㔲SG⁞㻲ῂSG☛㌆☯G XXZSGₖ㩫⹒
(Republic of Korea, Kyonggi Province, Seoul, Kumchon-District, Toksan
113, Kim Jungmin)
When writing a date, the year comes first, followed by month and the
day.
YWW^ ⎚G_G㤪G\G㧒 (2007-year 8-month 5-day)
Honorific language
Korean is an honorific language in that it has grammatical elements that
are used to indicate social meanings involved in contexts such as speakers’
attitudes (e.g., respect, humility, formality) toward who they are talking
to or talking about.
For instance, Koreans use hierarchical address-reference terms of titles
as well as various speech levels to indicate politeness, intimacy, and the
formality level of discourse during interaction. In addition, they use humble
person pronoun forms such as 㩖 “first person singular” and 㩖䧂 “first
person plural” to indicate humility. Moreover, Koreans use honorific
suffix -(㦒)㔲 and euphemistic words to indicate respect toward a sub-
ject of higher social status. The following examples illustrate how Korean
honorifics work:
(a) 㠊㩲G㤆ⰂG⳾㧚㠦G㢖G㭒㠊㍲G ἶⰞ㤢
“(I) appreciated that you came to our meeting yesterday.”
(b) 㠊㩲G㩖䧂G⳾㧚㠦G㢖G㭒㔲㠊㍲G ἶⰯ㔋┞┺U
“(I) appreciated that you came to our meeting yesterday.”
As seen above, the referential meanings of the two sentences are the same.
However, their social meanings are different. For example, in (a), the use
of the plain first person pronoun, 㤆Ⰲ, the absence of the honorific suffix
-㔲, and the use of an intimate speech level -㠊 indicate that the speaker
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